Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Spell Use Improvements

A number of suggested improvements for spells:

1. Spell icons. Having to slot a different icon for every possible level of every spell makes the hotbar incredibly cluttered. It would be much neater and more convenient if you only had to slot a given spell once, but when you click on it a smaller menu pops up to allow you to select which level you wish to cast it at.

2. Selecting spells on level up. When selecting new spells upon leveling up, the large grid of disorganised icons is difficult to look at. It would help a lot if they were at least split by level, much as they are in the spell preparation menu.

3. Spell prompts. Many of the spells in this game are either clunky or it is unclear how to use them. An example is Guidance - often it is unclear when a check is going to happen; or even when you do know a check will happen, switching to another character to cast guidance then back to the character performing the check feels like an unnecessary step. It would be much more convenient if, when a check is about to occur, a button prompt appeared for any spells that could be cast before and might help (e.g. Blessing of the Trickster for stealth, Guidance etc...).

4. Spells during conversation. Similar to the above point, there are a number of occasions where certain spells would be useful but cannot be cast, such as during conversation. Charm Person is used to gain advantage on Charisma checks, but no spells can be cast while talking to someone, and casting it outside of conversation triggers combat. Again, it would help a lot if there was a menu/prompt during conversation that allowed casting of any pertinent spells, such as Charm Person.

I love point 4. A NWN game, pirates of the sword Coast, featured exactly that in a relatively sophisticated way, increasing DC if you failed.

1) Agree totally! Maybe the normal level one would be left-clickable and the upper level one would come from right-clicking? Not sure, depends a little how normal it will be to cast spells as a higher level spell.

2) Yes! I was a little lost during the first couple of level ups, and that would make it so much easier. Maybe even organized by type of spell within the levels? Like evocations in a row, etc. (not sure if that's the case already, though)

3) Agree in a way, but not quite sure how much UI space that would take versus how other you will end up using the skills.

4) This would be awesome, and would work how it's intended as well. Some situations might be harder to cast the spell, meaning that you could get a disadvantage for example? Like if you are trying to vocally cast charm person in the middle of a pack of wizards.

My addition:

1) Would love if potions and scrolls would default to their own tab on the hotbar. The leveling up is so fast at the moment, that I literally forgot I got some new skill or spells because they were added to the second tab of the hotbar while the first tab was crowded with random drinks.

I didn't even use my spell bar the menus in this game are very unintuative and painful to navigate.

As for point 1, I believe Solasta Crown of the Magister has a small bar of numerals come up when you click on a spell, which allows you to just click which level you want to cast it at.

In fact, it would be much easier if spells weren't on the hotbar at all. I think it makes sense to have a section of the UI dedicated to holding all of your prepared spells, with a tab for each level (Cantrips, 1st level, 2nd level etc...). That way you could very quickly and easily navigate to any spell you want to cast without having fill pages and pages of hotbars with spell icons (especially when they're already cluttered with potions, items etc...).

With point 4, I agree that trying to cast Charm Person in front of other people would cause suspicion/conflict (like it does in D&D since it has verbal and somatic components), but if you're only talking to one person then it's usual risk-reward - will they make the Wisdom save and know you tried to manipulate them, or will it work and give you advantage for the conversation? Much more interesting decision than just "click persuasion check dialogue option and hope for the best".